Lake Mendota, Wisconsin, USA, Zebra Mussel Density and Biomass 2016-2018

We sampled adult zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) in the benthos of Lake Mendota from 2016-2018 to track the growth of the population following its initial detection in fall 2015. We sampled along three transects inherited from Karatayev et al. (2013) at five different depths (1, 3, 5, 8, and 10 m) twice a summer (June and August) from 2016-2018. Because suitable zebra mussel substrate was limited at these sites, we also selected five 1 m depth, rocky sites (optimal zebra mussel sites) to track density and biomass where colonization was most intense. A pared-down version of this routine sampling continued from 2019 onward but is not included here. This dataset complements zoobenthos and phytobenthos data collected according to the same routine sampling structure, as well as larval zebra mussel (veliger) sampling for which data is also archived with EDI. Biomass data are modeled from lengths of up to 100 individuals that were measured in each sample. Those lengths were fed into Lake Mendota-specific length-to-weight power law equations parameterized by body size measurements (length, width, live weight, wet weight, dry weight, shell weight, shell-free weight, and ash-free dry weight) of 99 mussels collected at different sites across Lake Mendota in 2018.